Many modern computing devices include associated pen devices, or styluses, that are configured for use with the computing devices. For instance, pen devices may be used to write and/or draw on a touchscreen interface of the computing device, simulating writing or drawing on paper with a pen, pencil, or other writing instrument. Pen devices also may be equipped with a variety of sensors (e.g., pressure sensors, inertial measurement units (IMUs), buttons, switches, microphones, etc.) that can be used to gather data to enable interaction with the computing device (e.g., sensors or other components for interacting with a digitizer component of the computing device, such as proximity sensing).
However, many of the interactions with the pen device, such as pen detection by the digitizer of the computing device, require large amounts of power in comparison to the power budget of a computing device in a low power state. For example, detecting movement and proximity of the pen device by the digitizer of the computing device at a low latency consumes a substantial amount of the power budget of the computing device in the low power state. Thus, the operations enabled by pen devices are not well-suited for use while a computing device is in the low power state. For instance, triggering the computing device to transition from the low power state to an active state based on low latency detection of pen device activity by the computing device results in consistent, relatively high-power consumption by the computing device, thereby reducing the power efficiency of the low power state of the computing device.